Fares Allowance (FAA) authorised in advance of travel for Youth Allowance (YA), Austudy and Pensioner Education Supplement (PES) 010-04060040

Ask the customer to complete the following sections:

• Student's personal details
• Pre-booked Fares Allowance
• Checklist
• Student's statement

An Australian Apprentice is not entitled to FAA for the Australian Apprenticeship.

Decide if the customer is eligible for Fares Allowance for the journey they wish to undertake.

Is the customer eligible for the journey?

• Yes, go to Step 4
• No, reject the claim for FAA. Go to Step 3

Record claim details and decision in a Fast Note - select Auto Text, use Students, ABSTUDY & Apprentices > Claims - Students.

• Template:
• Fares Allowance Reject
• Fares Allowance Reject - 6 month rule
• Fares Allowance Reject - lodged after 31

Tell the customer, the rejection of their FAA claim - by sending a Q021 (Fares Allowance - grant/reject/pay) letter.

Procedure ends here.

Does the fare being booked match the requested fare at question 21 and 22?

• Yes, go to Step 5
• No, where the mode of transport being booked is not the same as the mode requested by the customer, (for example, the student has requested a flight; however the Service Officer has found a cheaper mode of transport on the same route by bus), the Service Officer must contact the customer to advise them of this before finalising the booking

As part of this contact, the Service Officer will need to determine if there are extenuating factors, for example illness or incapacity, which may make air travel essential. In some cases, further information may be required from the student before travel arrangements can be finalised.

Note: this template is for YA, Austudy and PES students only.

See Resources to open and complete the FAA Student Travel Authorisation Booking Template.

This file should not be saved locally. The booking template must be completed in full, excluding Movement Requisition Number (MRN) before proceeding to the following steps.

• Go to the 'Fares' secure folder
• Access to this folder is restricted
• To obtain access, see Fares Allowance contacts
• Open the Fares Allowance - Movement Requisition Register
  Only one user can access the Register at a time
• Select the tab matching the appropriate year of booking
• Select the New Entry button, displayed at the top left of the page
• the MRN will be copied from the Movement Requisition Register into the Booking Template
• the customer details will be copied from the Booking Template into the Movement Requisition Register, and
• an email addressed to Corporate Travel Management (CTM) will be created with the booking template attached
• Update the From: field in the email to pre-booked Fares Allowance
• Ensure the email classification is marked as 'OFFICIAL'
• Close and save the new Movement Requisition Register
• Close the booking template without saving - a copy of this can be retrieved from the pre-booked Fares Allowance positional mailbox

The Resources page contains a copy of the form.

Before the customer's travel, verification that the customer is in receipt of a student payment that qualifies for FAA is required.

Code a review to fall due the day before the date of travel for each pre-booked journey. For mid-year travel, a review should be set for each journey to and from the institution.

In Customer First, create a manual review on the Review Registration (RVR) screen and complete the fields as follows:

• Service Reason: customer's payment type
• Review Reason: STU (Follow Up Studies Commitment)
• Due Date: one day before date of travel
• Source: INT
• Date of Receipt: today's date
• Notes: 'Check customer is eligible for Pre-Booked Fares Allowance Journey.'
• Keywords: SY005 and FARES
• Workgroup: leave blank
• Position: leave blank
• Transfer to Region: leave blank

The review will mature on the Due Date coded in the RVR activity. Workload Management will allocate the review for manual action.

Record details of the claim and decision in a Fast Note - select Auto Text, use Students, ABSTUDY & Apprentices > Claims - Students > Fares Allowance GRANT - Prebooked.

Procedure ends here until itinerary is received from CTM.

• CTM will email the itinerary once completed to the customer, using the email address provided in the booking form, as well as pre-booked Fares Allowance
• Update the details of the journey in the Movement Requisition Register. This will facilitate reconciliation of the CTM invoice at a later date

Procedure ends here.

Services Australia requires a minimum of 24 hours’ notice to cancel or vary travel arrangements on behalf of the student. Travel will only be cancelled or varied, if, the request is due to unforeseen or exceptional circumstances.

Services Australia may be unable to vary the travel when a student/nominee contacts within 24 hours of the travel.

If the request is to:

• make a variation to pre-booked travel arrangements, go to Step 2
• cancel pre-booked travel arrangements, go to Step 5

Approval of requests to vary pre-booked travel occurs only if the variation or cancellation is due to unforeseen or exceptional circumstances.

Exceptional and unforeseen circumstances are varied and may include:

• illness or injury
• weather or transport delays
• change to university exam timetable
• family emergency

The following would not be considered exceptional or unforeseen:

• participation in a planned institution or sporting event where the date of the activity is known prior to lodgement of travel request
• desire to attend a festival, show or social event
• requests to travel with a friend

Is the student/nominee requesting to vary or cancel travel due to unforeseen and exceptional circumstances or other allowable exceptions?

• Yes, and has contacted through:
• Smart Centre Call, go to step 4
• Fast Note activity allocated to skilled processing officer, go to step 5
• No, does not meet unforeseen/exceptional circumstances go to step 3

Advise that Services Australia cannot make a variation to the travel. The student must:

• continue with the pre-arranged itinerary, or
• cancel the travel arrangements with the agency

Does the student wish to cancel their pre-booked travel arrangements?

• Yes, go to Step 5
• No: Record a DOC on the students record with the decision. Procedure ends here

Take details of the request for variation/cancellation to travel. Send a Fast Note > Auto Text > Students, ABSTUDY & Apprentices > Fares Allowance > Variation/Cancellation of Travel to the Fares Allowance Smart Centre Processing Service Team for action.

Cancellation of a pre-booked journey is classed as a Variation.

Students or approved travellers must be advised to consider their travel requirements carefully. Cancelling an authorised or pre-booked travel journey means:

• the student or approved traveller would be considered as no longer needing the travel for that journey, and
• travel for the same journey cannot be rebooked

If the student or approved traveller advises at a later date that travel for the same journey is still required they must:

• book and pay for the travel themselves and
• apply for a reimbursement

If further information is required, contact the customer and complete all of the following:

• Retrieve the original booking template from the Pre-booked Fares Allowance Positional Mailbox
• Update the booking template with the variation or cancellation details
• Update the From: field in the email to Pre-booked Fares Allowance
• Email classification is marked as OFFICIAL
• Annotate the Fares Allowance GRANT – Prebooked doc with the updates made
• When a new itinerary is received (if required) update the details of the journey in the Movement Requisition Register

This process should only be completed by a senior staff member in the Fares Allowance Student Processing team, who has not approved any pre-booked travel during the period being reconciled.

The CTM travel account is received online on a monthly basis. The account holds the following information, the:

• travellers’ names
• booking reference provided by Centrelink with the booking
• arrival and departure destinations of the journey
• cost of the journey
• account entry is a debit or credit entry. Emails are sent to pre-booked Fares Allowance to advise that the Accounts are ready for download

Locate student record on Movement Requisition Register to match against corresponding entry on CTM account.

To check if an entry on CTM travel account matches travel undertaken by a student:

• the booking reference number listed at the entry on the CTM account must match that recorded for a journey on the movement requisition register
• check departure and destination details
• check that travel dates match

Can the CTM account listing be matched against travel recorded for a student?

• Yes, go to Step 4
• No, check the pre-booked Fares Allowance mailbox to check if CTM has emailed an itinerary. If an itinerary or booking request is:
• not found, go to Step 3
• found, ensure the Movement Requisition Register is updated appropriately, then go to Step 4

Where a listing on the CTM travel account is not recorded in the Movement Requisition Register, check the customer's record for a Fares Allowance Claim, or any notes about the travel.

• If a claim was lodged, update Movement Requisition Register as required, then go to Step 4
• If no claim has been made by the Fares Allowance Processing team, contact CTM via telephone to determine how the travel was booked

Once determined:

• If an error has occurred on behalf of CTM, go to Step 9
• If the travel was correctly booked as part of a Fares Allowance pre-booked claim:
• email the original booking request and/or itinerary to pre-booked Fares Allowance mailbox

For journeys where the booking reference number is a match between the CTM account and the student's travel record, check if the journey has been previously acquitted. An acquittal has occurred previously if it appears on last month's travel account, which should be retained in the Reconciliation Folder.

Has the journey been previously reconciled?

• Yes, if charges for a journey appear twice on CTM accounts, this suggests the Agency has been incorrectly charged twice for a journey, go to Step 8
• No, go to Step 5

CTM charge the agency for all bookings where a ticket has been issued. In some instances, a student does not undertake the journey that has been ticketed.

Verification the student undertook the journey is not needed and can go not detected until the customer contacts the agency or makes a claim for a refund of travel. To identify if travel was undertaken, check the Document List (DL) screen to see if any notation indicates that travel was not undertaken.

Does Services Australia record indicate the student did not undertake the journey?

• Yes, go to Step 7
• No, go to Step 6

The CTM account entry is acquitted because:

• the CTM account has been matched to a student, and
• the student undertook the journey as charged

Note: on the CTM travel account spreadsheet the listed journey has been reconciled.

Go to Step 9.

If the student did not undertake the journey listed on the CTM account, the agency may be able to request a credit from CTM for the amount of the charge. This will depend on the type of flight (Fully flexible, standard).

It is the role of the travel officer to follow up with CTM the reconciliation for credit requests of travel not undertaken, where the type of flight provides a refund.

Email CTM accounts asking for a credit of the charges made against a 'no show' student.

In the email, state:

• the agency is seeking a credit for the flight, if it is available based on the type of flight booked
• student's name
• movement requisition number
• the Booking reference number
• the embarkation and destination points of the travel for which the credit is requested (for example, Joe Bloggs from Perth to Kununurra)

CTM will respond to the request and advise if a credit has been given.

If the CTM travel account has now been satisfactorily reconciled:

• mark all entries on the CTM travel account spreadsheet as 'reconciled'
• file under Monthly Reconciliation within the Fares secure folder